The author focuses on the history of bird captivity. He discusses the collection of native parakeets in India in 327 BC by Macedonian generals Nearchus and Onesicritus, the use of caged birds on ocean journeys in fifth century BC to locate land, and the depiction of captive birds in literature, as seen in the poem "Sympathy" by Paul Lawrence Dunbar, the book "The Awakening" by Kate Chopin, and the book "Maximum City" by Suketu Mehta.